The home side had a chance to pull one back eight minutes before the end when Hami Syahin’s lofted ball put Taufik through on goal, but the latter was denied by Syazwan in a one-on-one opportunity.

The final whistle soon sounded to signal a sixth loss for Young Lions as they remained ninth, while Geylang went up to fifth with seven points from five matches.

Garena Young Lions Head Coach V Selvaraj: “It was two different halves. We created two good chances in the last five minutes of the first-half and should have buried one of them if we had more composure in front of goal.

“In the second half, we got higher up the pitch, were more confident on the ball and penetrated their defence more. We also made good substitutions which offered more speed, but we were not able to finish the chances off.

“The good thing is that we’re competing now, the boys are believing in themselves more. Now we just have to keep working and do the right things to win the next match.”

Geylang International Head Coach Hasrin Jailani: “At the end of the day, the three points is the most important after a heavy defeat. It’s not easy for the players; you can see from their body language.

“Young Lions are also an improved side; a few players did very well, like Taufik (Suparno) who is someone who can create a lot of problems. They played according to their game plan and defended very well.

“We still have a lot of areas for improvement. The balls played in behind our defence gave us a lot of problems and we need to get back to the basics of defending. That’s our priority, especially with Brunei DPMM (coming up next) who has a good strikeforce.”